(no subject)
I am pretty much in a "burn it to the ground and start over" mood right now.
So this week, I received a notice that my Medicare premium payment is due. For, basically, July 1 through December 31.
This totals $807.80.
Also, it is dated 8/26/11, and I am getting more and more suspicious of the Clinton post offices' abilities to handle anything on the face of the planet, considering that notice I got from the U.S. Department of Education arrived nearly a month after its postmark, but that is neither here nor there.
I thought, "Well, that doesn't sound right," and kind of put it aside for a day because, hey, that's scary shit when there's no income, and it's pretty anxiety-inducing in a person who has no anxiety disorder. See, it used to be that my Medicare premium was taken out of my Social Security payment. With the Social Security fuckup, though, it is apparently not getting paid and I am apparently getting fucked. If this is not paid by 9/25/11, my coverage ends 9/30/11, and I can't apply to get it reinstated until the first quarter of next year, and then it won't be effective until July 1.
I applied, at the end of July, for Medicaid through Iowa. There was something mailed to me that didn't make it through (I regard the mail carrier who served the neighborhood the house was in with deep suspicion, as that makes at least three government letters that I just never received--not late, but never delivered), and I was originally turned down for the full coverage I'd discussed with my caseworker. I called her, she resent it, Geena hand-delivered it, it got approved to begin September 1. Which, you would think, would mean that it would begin September 1. Part of what Medicaid is supposed to cover, and I asked about this specifically when applying and when I called, is my Medicare premium.
Today, I made phone calls. My first call was to Medicaid to figure out what's up. The person I spoke to said that, no, their records showed that Medicaid should be covering my premium beginning September 1, but that I should call Medicare to be sure. I did so, and the person I spoke to at Medicare said that their records do not show that Medicaid is covering anything, so I should call Medicaid back to figure that out. So I made my second call to Medicaid. I explained to the person I spoke to during this call what the first call to Medicaid was, what the Medicare employee told me, and exactly what it says on the letter. She checked their system and said that it should be covered, but that she needed to check another system and asked me to hold.
When she came back, she said that she'd checked the other system and spoken to her team leader, and as it so happens, it can take up to sixty days for this change to go through. Why it takes sixty days, I have no fucking idea. Maybe their computers are from the seventies. She suggested I call my DHS caseworker to figure it out.
So I called DHS. My caseworker was out of the office or unavailable, so the person answering the phone transferred me to someone else. I got this person's voicemail, and I left a rather frustrated and upset message about what's going on and how I absolutely need to know what I need to do as soon as possible because otherwise I'm going to be without Medicare entirely.
I have not yet heard back. I called about an hour ago. DHS closes at four, if I remember correctly, and as I type, it is 3:56. I suspect I'm going to go a weekend with absolutely zero news and a hell of a lot of anxiety.
I also called my Social Security caseworker to find out what the hell is up with my payments, since back on August 22, she said that my payments should be reinstated within two to four weeks, after telling me in July that my payments should be reinstated in August. She was with someone else, so I spoke to the person who answered the phone, who used their inter-office messenger to talk to my caseworker. My caseworker correctly guessed what I was calling about and said that she had no idea what more they could possibly need, so she was going to send a message to the payment center to figure it out.
Yesterday, Geena printed forms that our congressperson's office emailed me. I filled them out, and she mailed them. These forms were to explain what is going on with Social Security and what the problem is, so that hopefully his office can give them a kick in the ass and get my payments reinstated.
Right now, the last payment I received was in May, around May 3. That's four months without payments. Four months of asking my family and friends and complete strangers for help paying rent and bills. Four months that total $2,791.20 that Social Security has not sent me.
And because it hasn't been paid, I currently, apparently, owe Medicare $807.80 in order to keep getting covered.
I am having Geena print those forms a second time. I will fill them out detailing the Medicare mess and mail them to our representative's office.
This is how we treat the disabled in this country. This is how little the people who physically or mentally or both cannot work are valued by our federal government. This is what is going on, and I can't stand it.
I'm not asking, at this time, for donations. I am, however, asking for advice. What should my next step be? Who should I contact? Do I need to email my state representative's office, too, about the Medicaid issue? Should I find a news outlet? What do I do?
I honestly do not know. I don't have a clue how to fix things beyond making these calls and sending these forms to my congressperson's office.
This post is public. If you can signal-boost, just because I need the advice so terribly, I would greatly appreciate it. I will, at this point, do whatever it takes to fix things with Medicare. I cannot physically handle another winter with no medication. I especially cannot handle another winter with no psychiatric medication. I still don't know how I went from December to August with no psychiatric medications.
I have Bipolar I with psychotic features, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, insomnia, fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome--hypermobility variant (formerly Type III), arthritis, chronic migraines, complex regional pain syndrome, and chronic severe leg problems due to an accident when I was fourteen. And I may have to go back to being completely medication-free except for ibuprofen and acetaminophen that are, I know, killing my liver and kidneys because of the doses I have to take to have any effect whatsoever on my pain levels. There is nothing I can do for my psychiatric problems without prescription medication. One of my psychiatric medications costs over $330 without insurance, and that's a much lower dose than is effective, and is also the generic version. I can't apply for coverage from pharmaceutical companies yet; I still have insurance. If I apply after losing Medicare, it takes six to eight weeks to hear back from the companies. So I just don't know.
And that is why I need help.
I live in Clinton, IA, if that helps at all with advice.
So this week, I received a notice that my Medicare premium payment is due. For, basically, July 1 through December 31.
This totals $807.80.
Also, it is dated 8/26/11, and I am getting more and more suspicious of the Clinton post offices' abilities to handle anything on the face of the planet, considering that notice I got from the U.S. Department of Education arrived nearly a month after its postmark, but that is neither here nor there.
I thought, "Well, that doesn't sound right," and kind of put it aside for a day because, hey, that's scary shit when there's no income, and it's pretty anxiety-inducing in a person who has no anxiety disorder. See, it used to be that my Medicare premium was taken out of my Social Security payment. With the Social Security fuckup, though, it is apparently not getting paid and I am apparently getting fucked. If this is not paid by 9/25/11, my coverage ends 9/30/11, and I can't apply to get it reinstated until the first quarter of next year, and then it won't be effective until July 1.
I applied, at the end of July, for Medicaid through Iowa. There was something mailed to me that didn't make it through (I regard the mail carrier who served the neighborhood the house was in with deep suspicion, as that makes at least three government letters that I just never received--not late, but never delivered), and I was originally turned down for the full coverage I'd discussed with my caseworker. I called her, she resent it, Geena hand-delivered it, it got approved to begin September 1. Which, you would think, would mean that it would begin September 1. Part of what Medicaid is supposed to cover, and I asked about this specifically when applying and when I called, is my Medicare premium.
Today, I made phone calls. My first call was to Medicaid to figure out what's up. The person I spoke to said that, no, their records showed that Medicaid should be covering my premium beginning September 1, but that I should call Medicare to be sure. I did so, and the person I spoke to at Medicare said that their records do not show that Medicaid is covering anything, so I should call Medicaid back to figure that out. So I made my second call to Medicaid. I explained to the person I spoke to during this call what the first call to Medicaid was, what the Medicare employee told me, and exactly what it says on the letter. She checked their system and said that it should be covered, but that she needed to check another system and asked me to hold.
When she came back, she said that she'd checked the other system and spoken to her team leader, and as it so happens, it can take up to sixty days for this change to go through. Why it takes sixty days, I have no fucking idea. Maybe their computers are from the seventies. She suggested I call my DHS caseworker to figure it out.
So I called DHS. My caseworker was out of the office or unavailable, so the person answering the phone transferred me to someone else. I got this person's voicemail, and I left a rather frustrated and upset message about what's going on and how I absolutely need to know what I need to do as soon as possible because otherwise I'm going to be without Medicare entirely.
I have not yet heard back. I called about an hour ago. DHS closes at four, if I remember correctly, and as I type, it is 3:56. I suspect I'm going to go a weekend with absolutely zero news and a hell of a lot of anxiety.
I also called my Social Security caseworker to find out what the hell is up with my payments, since back on August 22, she said that my payments should be reinstated within two to four weeks, after telling me in July that my payments should be reinstated in August. She was with someone else, so I spoke to the person who answered the phone, who used their inter-office messenger to talk to my caseworker. My caseworker correctly guessed what I was calling about and said that she had no idea what more they could possibly need, so she was going to send a message to the payment center to figure it out.
Yesterday, Geena printed forms that our congressperson's office emailed me. I filled them out, and she mailed them. These forms were to explain what is going on with Social Security and what the problem is, so that hopefully his office can give them a kick in the ass and get my payments reinstated.
Right now, the last payment I received was in May, around May 3. That's four months without payments. Four months of asking my family and friends and complete strangers for help paying rent and bills. Four months that total $2,791.20 that Social Security has not sent me.
And because it hasn't been paid, I currently, apparently, owe Medicare $807.80 in order to keep getting covered.
I am having Geena print those forms a second time. I will fill them out detailing the Medicare mess and mail them to our representative's office.
This is how we treat the disabled in this country. This is how little the people who physically or mentally or both cannot work are valued by our federal government. This is what is going on, and I can't stand it.
I'm not asking, at this time, for donations. I am, however, asking for advice. What should my next step be? Who should I contact? Do I need to email my state representative's office, too, about the Medicaid issue? Should I find a news outlet? What do I do?
I honestly do not know. I don't have a clue how to fix things beyond making these calls and sending these forms to my congressperson's office.
This post is public. If you can signal-boost, just because I need the advice so terribly, I would greatly appreciate it. I will, at this point, do whatever it takes to fix things with Medicare. I cannot physically handle another winter with no medication. I especially cannot handle another winter with no psychiatric medication. I still don't know how I went from December to August with no psychiatric medications.
I have Bipolar I with psychotic features, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, insomnia, fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome--hypermobility variant (formerly Type III), arthritis, chronic migraines, complex regional pain syndrome, and chronic severe leg problems due to an accident when I was fourteen. And I may have to go back to being completely medication-free except for ibuprofen and acetaminophen that are, I know, killing my liver and kidneys because of the doses I have to take to have any effect whatsoever on my pain levels. There is nothing I can do for my psychiatric problems without prescription medication. One of my psychiatric medications costs over $330 without insurance, and that's a much lower dose than is effective, and is also the generic version. I can't apply for coverage from pharmaceutical companies yet; I still have insurance. If I apply after losing Medicare, it takes six to eight weeks to hear back from the companies. So I just don't know.
And that is why I need help.
I live in Clinton, IA, if that helps at all with advice.